brodiew

@ Shortridge - From Delaware It would be a long haul, but you also added the Jamboree in there and that is only a few hours away. While I realize not everyone is going to be central to each location, the event should be long enough to offset the travel time to get there and back. If the event is big enough and it is something worth doing, the travel time/cost would be worth it. From where I am, roundtrip to Philmont is 42 hours. Was it worth it for us? Yes. Would we have gone if we lived in Delaware? Probably. We might have changed travel plans and used an aircraft vs a bus, but we

@ shortridge - You say "Heck, looking at it like that, it's not feasible for Scouts from opposite sides of the country to attend Philmont or Jambo." These are week long events and it is feasible to attend. To compare a 1.25 day event to Philmont or the Jamboree is crazy... Make the "Venture National Event" worth the trip to get to it and people will come. My Crew is was all geared up and ready to go to this when they first started talking about it, but as soon as they found out it was scheduled to go just one full day... All that enthusiasm just disappeared.

We have been discussing this on the BSA Venturer Facebook group as well. It seems that the only ones really excited about this are the ones within a 5-6 hour drive. A couple of points... From the Panhandle of Florida it is a 12 hour drive by car, 14-15 by bus. If a Crew from Phoenix, AZ wanted to attend, they would be looking at a 22 hour trip one way (via car). Boston? 20 hours. ... You are looking at more time spent getting to the event than you actually spend doing stuff. Per Amanda Vogt: "As to the event schedule: We are starting things around 6pm on Friday, and th

It is obvious that I am not going to change minds here... I believe a few of you are just spouting the BSA policy because that is all you know to do. While I do agree that helmets can help in certain situations, I do not agree that everyone should be made to wear them. It should be a personal decision and it should not matter if you are a card carrying member of the BSA or not. If you have no idea what the slopes even look like at Gatlinburg, you have no room to even add your two cents. The head injury rate for skiers is so low it is laughable. "A NSAA fact sheet says in 2

I have done it many of times as well... No helmet.. No problem.. One thing I have with this is this... Why can I not make my own decision. I am not on BSA property, I am not participating in a BSA event. BSA has nothing what so ever to do with the skiing at Gatlinburg, but because we are in the area as Scouts we now have to do this. To me its just like seat belts and motorcycle helmets. Who am I to tell someone they have to wear em. It should be a personal choice for that person to decide. Now if BSA wants to mandate something while on BSA property, that would be a different

"And it not the hardness or otherwise of the snow that's the problem. It's trees, snow making machinery, snowmobiles, lift towers, even sit skis, etc. that kill people." If you hit any of these items, chances are it is not with your head, but with the bulk of your body. Olympic skiers wear them because they are traveling at higher rates of speed and their helmets are designed to protect their heads in high speed falls and also cost alot more. Seeing as we are from Fl, these boys and girls are not into speed, but into staying on their skis in an upright position. I understa

While I agree that helmets are necessary while bike riding, dirt trails are very hard and so is concrete/asphalt. But this is snow and while it can get fairly hard, it is relatively soft when you fall on it. Are we as Scout leaders going to start requiring helmets when swimming? Jumping off the diving board, you could whack your head, or if you decide to try the high dive.. That water is pretty hard from that height. What about water sports like waterskiing or wakeboarding? I have about knocked myself out waterskiing in one of my wipeouts... But in 20+ years of recreational ski

Mine are contemplating not even skiing at Winterfest because of this new rule. I have been asked by a bunch of them to look into how they could ski, but not be associated with Ventures. The fact that they will be traveling as a group to Gatlinburg ind of leads me to believe that no matter what they do that weekend, they are Venturer Scouts and even if tehy pay as an individual would still have to follow those rules. Does anyone else see a way around this? (And yes.. I feel this rule is a knee jerk reaction and serves not real purpose).

Ok... My crew is getting ready to head to Winterfest again this year. They are all looking forward to hitting the slopes and having some fun. What they are not looking forward to is this new helmet rule. Now I realize some people have probably had some accidents over the past 50 years that helmets would have avoided, but making everyone where a helmet for one 6 hour session of skiing once a year is crazy. As it is, most of these kids are going to grab their beat up bike helmet (if they have one)and wear it... Very little protection there. On top of that they are going to have